Congrats to @PennChemistry undergrad @KristinOsika and grad student Matt Gaynes @MNG_Chem for this fantastic study, showing how a class II terpene cyclase collaborates with a tailoring enzyme in bifunctional biosynthesis! Just out in @PNASnews:.

Congratulations Nico! Welcome to the ancient and universal company of scholars…#caltech2025

Congrats to postdoc Eliott Wenger for his fabulous cryo-EM structure and enzymological studies of a massive bifunctional terpene synthase, variediene synthase, just out in @NatureComms! See:

The chapel at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University. The head of Oliver Cromwell is buried here at a location known only to the Master, the Vice Master, and the Bursar. I was a Visiting Fellow here 19 years ago!

Many thanks to Ben Luisi and colleagues for hosting my seminar visit to the Department of Biochemistry at Cambridge University today! We enjoyed a post-seminar feast at Little Petra, a splendid Jordanian restaurant.

Excited to give this week’s seminar in the biochemistry department at Cambridge!

Saturday night at the Novello theater in London, what a fantastic show!

I was honored to give the 2024/25 Structural Biology Lecture at the University of Warwick @uniofwarwick @warwickchem today. Many thanks to Prof. Greg Challis and colleagues for their warm welcome at both of my lectures!

Proud father! Congrats to Nicolas Christianson, who successfully defended his PhD thesis at @Caltech in Computer and Mathematical Sciences. Dr. Christianson now heads north to begin his postdoctoral appointment as a Stanford Energy Fellow @StanfordEnergy.

I received the Ira H. Abrams Memorial Award for Distinguished Teaching from @PennSAS today! Many thanks to Christianson Group members as well as students from my lecture courses who submitted nominations.

I was inspired to meet Holocaust survivor Dr. Michael Katz (@Penn '49) and Penn senior Ethan Burian at today's #HolocaustRemembranceDay Ceremony at Penn Hillel. It was my great honor to light one of the six candles in memory of the 6 million Jews who perished. Never forget.

As a staunch ally of Penn Hillel, I am honored, and moved beyond words, to be invited to this year's Yom Hashoah Remembrance Ceremony, where I will light one of the six candles commemorating the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Never forget.

Many thanks to Prof. Toshiyuki Wakimoto for hosting my seminar today in the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Hokkaido University @HokkaidoUni . Below is a post-seminar photo with Toshi and some of his faculty colleagues.

Very proud of group member @KristinOsika, a biochem major in @PennChemistry! Kristin's poster, Structure and Mechanism of a Bifunctional Terpene Cyclase-Phosphatase, was first-place winner in the biochem foundations category of the undergrad poster competition at the @ASBMB mtg.

I enjoyed dinner with Prof Takayoshi Suzuki and colleagues (Profs Y Itoh, Y Yamashita, and Y Takada) following my seminar at SANKEN (@SANKEN_En), Osaka University. The Teppanyaki restaurant was outstanding!

I am honored to receive the Ira H. Abrams Memorial Award for Distinguished Teaching from the School of Arts and Sciences @PennSAS! Such good news to learn while lecturing at universities in Japan this week.

Honored to meet Prof Genji Kurisu, Director of PDB Japan @PDBj_en @buildmodels, & Profs Hironubu Hojo & Atsushi Nakagawa at @osaka_univ_e! Looking forward to giving lectures on our HDAC and terpene synthase work at the Institute for Protein Research @IPR_pr and @SANKEN_En.

Many thanks to Prof. Hiroki Oguri and the chemistry department faculty at the University of Tokyo @UTokyo_Science for hosting my recent seminar visit. I was inspired to learn about the cutting-edge research in the department & I also enjoyed meeting many outstanding PhD students!

Helmets outside the chemistry department labs at University of Tokyo. When there is an earthquake, the first thing you do is put a helmet on. Lab safety at its finest!

It is my good luck to be in Tokyo during cherry blossom season! Ueno Park on a slightly overcast Sunday afternoon.